Bowen's disease and related diseases such as recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) are rare diseases, for which the medical need has not yet been met, and require drugs to cure or treat them. Stage 1 melanoma is a disease which is often initially treated by surgery. Each of these diseases would benefit from new treatments. Bowen's disease may also be identified as an orphan disease, referring to a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people and, as a result, is often overlooked as providing sufficient incentive to researchers and enterprises to develop pharmaceuticals for treatment.
Bowen's disease (also known as “squamous cell carcinoma in situ”) is a very early form of skin cancer. The main visible symptom is a red, scaly patch on the skin. Bowen's disease involved abnormal growth of the squamous cells, in the outermost layer of skin. Sometimes, the cancerous cells spread along the skin's surface, but it is usually very slow-growing and may not change for years. Occasionally (in 3-5% of patients), Bowen's disease infiltrates the deeper layers of skin and turns into a more serious type of skin cancer. However, the disease is manageable and there is only a risk if it is left undiagnosed or untreated.
Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) disease is also known as “laryngeal papillomatosis”. It is caused by HPV, typically HPV6 and 11, and involves formation of generally nonmalignant tumors on the larynx or vocal chords, but can spread to the trachea, bronchi and even to the lungs. This rare disease is typically fatal and can require large numbers of surgeries per year to keep the airway open. Children can contract RRP in the birth canal from vaginal delivery when mothers have active cases of condyloma, and adults also contract the disease.
Stage I malignant melanoma (sometimes called a localized melanoma) is a cancer in epidermis (the outer layer of the skin) and/or the dermis (upper part of the inner layer of skin), but which has not spread to lymph nodes or anywhere else in the body. An important feature of melanoma is the thickness of the melanoma (“Breslow thickness,” which is measured in millimeters). Based on the thickness of the tumor, a melanoma is categorized into 3 main groups: (1) thin melanomas, where the thickness is less than or equal to 1 mm; (2) intermediate thickness melanomas, where the thickness is between 1 mm to 4 mm; and (3) thick melanomas, where the thickness is greater than 4 mm. Thicker melanomas have a greater chance of spread to sites beyond the initial tumor and a greater chance of recurrence. Generally, when a melanoma spreads, it spreads to lymph nodes in the region of the primary tumor first. Stage 1 melanoma is often treated with surgery. The patient would undergo an operation to remove a larger area of healthy tissue around the melanoma. This removal of surrounding tissue is called a wide local excision. The amount of tissue removed in a wide local excision depends on the thickness of the melanoma. While this is a small operation, alternative non-surgical remedies would be desirable in treating melanomas detected at such an early stage.